Free Women Mujeres Libres

Free Women based their activities upon the dialog, the solidarity and the equality of differences. It was therefore a model for the social movements of the current dialogical societies of the XXIst Century, in which these elements basic are to overcome the social inequalities. Free Women organization was created in the framework of the libertarian movement shortly before the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. It was one of the movements with greatest impact upon the lives of the worker and peasant women. More than twenty thousand women enrolled the organization, almost all of them young women, workers and with no academic education. They got organized in order to overcome what they called the triple slavery of the worker woman: slavery as a woman, slavery as a worker and slavery for the lack of opportunities to gain access to education. They were the main actresses of the complete transformation of their own lives. They didn't only claim for labor and social equality, but they also transformed their personal relationships, love and the sexuality, contributing to the overcoming of a traditional masculinity model based upon power relationships and double standards. Laura Ruiz is a researcher at the University of Barcelona.

With fists upraised, Mujeres Libres struggled for their own emancipation and the freedom of all.

"When historians take women's movements and gender differences in organizations... seriously, this book will become part of the canon.... a forthright effort to view women's participation in politics in exciting new ways." --American Historical Review "The work not only fills a gap in knowledge of women's radical politics, but also addresses current concerns of feminist scholars." --Choice "The book brings us something of the excitement of the revolutionary possibility lived by these women--and the frustration of their encounter with male resistance to including women's emancipation in the revolutionary program." --Signs "Theirs is a story of commitment and creativity, of steadfastness and practicality, of communal endeavour and the bleak individual fate of defeat, hardship, and exile." --Gender and History "Ackelsberg, in the roles of both historian and activist, has crafted a volume that speaks to a wide variety of interests.... Her story is rich with the memories and voices of women... " --The Women's Review of Books "The author examines the autonomous women's liberation organization in late-1930s Spain, which represented an alternative to the individualistic perspectives characterizing mainstream feminist movements of the time." --Smith Alumnae Quarterly "... particularly strong on the ideology and organization of this radical women's group of the late 1930s." --Society for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies Bulletin "Ackelsberg gives the reader a fine explanation of the Spanish events, the general perspective of anarchism and the inspiring goals and struggles of Mujeres Libres." --Fifth Estate Ackelsberg explores the development of Mujeres Libres, founded in 1936 during the Civil War in Spain as an organization dedicated to the liberation of women from their triple enslavement--to ignorance, as women, and as producers.

DEFYING MALE CIVILIZATION examines women's role and experiences in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). It addresses the significant contributions made by anonymous women at the homefront as well as the heroic accomplishments of female political leaders and women who fought at the warfronts.

Why we are the “other women” This book recognizes a reality, our reality, that of the “other women”. Why are we the “other women”? Because we are women who, given the fact that we have not had the chance to obtain an academic education, were silenced and have remained outside of the spaces for public debate about women. This exclusion is worse if we are immigrants or belong to an ethnic minority. Those of us who are housewives, domestic workers or factory workers, because we do not have academic degrees, do not have spaces in which our voices can be heard, where we can say what we want. At times women whose voices are heard, because they have been able to go to university or have been leaders in the feminist movement, speak for all of the other women who have not been able to get a formal education, without asking us what it is we really want or think. Through our participation in educational and cultural centers and associations, many of us have formed associations and women’s groups. In this way, we are creating spaces where we can discuss issues that we are concerned about: solidarity among women, demands for better widows’ pensions, exploitation of domestic workers, etc. And we are organizing ourselves to get our voices, demands and opinions about these issues out there into the public debate.

For a full list of entries and contributors, sample entries, and more, visit the Routledge International Encyclopedia of Women website. Featuring comprehensive global coverage of women's issues and concerns, from violence and sexuality to feminist theory, the Routledge International Encyclopedia of Women brings the field into the new millennium. In over 900 signed A-Z entries from US and Europe, Asia, the Americas, Oceania, and the Middle East, the women who pioneered the field from its inception collaborate with the new scholars who are shaping the future of women's studies to create the new standard work for anyone who needs information on women-related subjects.

The "most dangerous woman alive" in the most inspring revolution of modern history.

This book is a collection of 150 documents from feminist organizations and gatherings in over 50 countries over the course of three centuries. The manifestos are shown to contain feminist theory and recommend actions for change, and also to expand our very conceptions of feminist thought and activism. Covering issues from political participation, education, religion and work to reproduction, violence, racism and environmentalism, the manifestos challenge definitions of gender and feminist movements.